00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
We are looking at the book of
Ephesians. It's been a couple of weeks since
we've studied Galatians. So, what are some of the things
in the book of Galatians? I have a story of Hagar and Sam. I have a contrast between the
fruit of flesh and the fruit of spirit. I have a story of
sowing and reaping. I also have the fruits of the
Holy Spirit. Yeah, so obviously Galatians,
a strong message of justification by faith. Our summary for Galatians. Galatians teaches how the crucifixion
and resurrection of Christ frees us from the bondage of the law
by grace alone through faith alone. What are some of the ways
that Galatians speaks to us today? Right. Right. Right. All right, well Jim gets
the gold star tonight. He did pretty good there with
retaining Galatians. Alright, well we're looking at
the book of Ephesians tonight. And what are some things in the
book of Ephesians? Right. Yeah, so some other common things
realized in Ephesians opens up talking about predestination. Mentioned salvation by grace
through faith, not of works. The marriage of a man and a woman
reflecting Christ and his church. The armor of God was mentioned
as well as probably the most extensive references to spiritual
warfare would be found in the book of Ephesians. Okay, so our
summary here on the board for Ephesians. Ephesians was written
to show how God is glorified through Christ in the church
by the uniting of Jews and Gentiles in one body. And that It comes
out particularly in the verse that's right at the very center
of this book. That's chapter 3, verse 21. Unto him be glory
in the church, by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without
end. Amen. And all the things that have
gone before that to speak of the uniting of Jews and Gentiles. Alright, so observations on Ephesians. Ephesians is the tenth book of
the New Testament. It is the fifth book of the epistles
and of the church epistles. Paul wrote Ephesians most likely
during his first imprisonment in Rome. So that would be in
the early 60s of the first century and with what is covered at the
very end of the book of Acts. Ephesians is often grouped with
some other letters that were written around the same time.
And they're sometimes referred to as the prison epistles of
Paul. And there are actually four of
them. So does anybody know what those are? That's right, yeah. So Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians,
and Philemon. The exact order is not certain,
though Philippians does seem to be a little earlier. Ephesians
and Colossians have so many similarities that it seems they had to have
been written very closely. And then you also have the overlap
with Philemon and the mention of, I can't think of his name
now. Yes, so you have the overlap
there. So those four letters are all connected together and
were close in time, and Ephesians and Colossians especially appearing
very close. So those prison epistles, most
likely written during that first imprisonment in Rome. So Ephesians,
it is a literary epistle, and it includes the standard conventions
that you expect. So you have your salutation,
chapter 1, verses 1 to 2. You have the body of the letter,
chapter 1, verse 3, through chapter 6, verse 20. And then you have
the conclusion, which is chapter 6, verses 21 to 24. So it includes some of the things
you'd expect, such as thanksgivings and prayers. In fact, for being
such a short book, it includes a few prayers in Ephesians. It does not include any personal
greetings in the terms of naming people in Ephesus. It does not
include any discernible corrections or rebukes. It does include rich,
rich doctrinal instruction and very clear practical exhortations. And in fact, the letter is pretty
well divided evenly between those two things, half of it being
the body, half of it being doctrinal, half of it being practical. Now,
the letter to the Ephesians does not include the specific mention
of an occasion or a concern. So it doesn't mention any particular
problem in the church at Ephesus. It doesn't mention any particular
question that they had or any sort of wrong that Paul was writing
to correct. So it is a little different in
that regard. The letter, though, when you look at it as a whole,
it is a strong exhortation to unity, particularly between Jews
and Gentiles within a church. And we know that that certainly
was an issue among the early churches, and that would be due
to the influence of the Judaizers as well as the weaker conscience
of some of the Jewish Christians. So we know that was an issue.
Paul addressed some of that sort of thing in the first Corinthians
letter. He obviously addressed it in
Galatians. He addressed it in the a letter to the Romans toward
the end. So he addresses that issue, the
Jew and Gentile problem, at many different times. And in the Book
of Acts, we certainly know that it was an issue. So in other
words, what I'm saying is that we don't have a specific mention
in the letter that this was a problem. Like, for instance, he writes
to the Church of Corinth and he says, you know, it's commonly
reported that there's divisions among you. And then he goes on
to talk about those divisions. Well, he doesn't say anything
like that, but I think it's safe to infer that Maybe there was
some problem there, or the potential for some problem, or perhaps
he's just trying to guard them against that problem and exhorting
them to this type of unity. So that really provides the occasion,
so to speak. At least it's the purpose of
why he is writing, though there's not any particular incident that
seems to have provoked it. All right, so let's do a quick
walkthrough here of the Letter to the Ephesians, six chapters.
Chapter number one. It begins with the salutation,
and chapter 1 proceeds to describe God's purpose and plan in Christ
for all who will be saved, including such things as redemption, inheritance,
blessings, adoption, what have you. Chapter two opens with the
common sinful beginning of Jews and Gentiles alike. So he opens
in chapter one going back before the foundation of the world and
of those being chosen in Christ to salvation. He opens in chapter
two of experience in life being born into sin and walking in
sin and that also being a common experience of Jews and Gentiles
alike. And so through chapter 2, he describes the transformation
that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. And he goes on toward
the end of the chapter to speak of the joining together of Jews
and Gentiles in the church because of their unity in Christ. So that unity in Christ is what
makes the foundation for that practical unity within the church. And that comes out as the letter
goes on. Chapter 3 unfolds God's mystery
as the salvation of Gentiles and them being made fellow heirs
without becoming Jews and apart from the Old Covenant. So, the
mystery that is referred to a few times in Ephesians, and it's
really explained and opened up in chapter 3, what this mystery
is that Paul's talking about, and it's the revelation of the
new covenant salvation that does not require circumcision and
keeping of the law of the old covenant. In particular, that
applies to Gentiles. So, it's not a mystery in the
Old Testament, about the salvation of Gentiles. That's spoken of
even if you go all the way back to the Abrahamic covenant. I
mean it's spoken of there. How that through Abraham is going
to come blessing to all the nations and families of the earth. Not
just the special nation that comes from him of the Jewish
people. So all the way through you have that through the Old
Testament. But what was not revealed during that time was that the
Gentiles would be included in new covenant salvation apart
from circumcision and the works of law. We've obviously spent
a lot of time talking about those kind of things because we've
been going through the book of Acts where that is a major issue in clarifying
the gospel, where here Paul writes to the Ephesians, he speaks about
it as a great mystery. This is something that the prophets
before didn't see, and something that God has revealed in Christ. So that's the mystery that is
spoken of in the book. He goes on in chapter 3 to show
that the wisdom of God is made known by the local church. In
other words, that local church is a visible body. It's a visible, tangible congregation
where Jews and Gentiles are joined together in one body. Now, it's
hard probably for us to imagine the divide between Jew and Gentile
as strong as it was. And if we probably think of some
of the most extreme examples that we know of racial problems
and conflicts, Jews, for instance, they would not sit down at a
table and eat with a Gentile. They would not go into a Gentile's
home. After, you know, having walked in a street where Gentiles
walk, they would come home and shake the dust off their feet
and they would, you know, bathe in themselves and all of these
kinds of things, all these kind of practices that were a part
of their cultural identity. And so for the world then to
look on this local congregation where you have Jews and Gentiles
that are joined together, and they're eating together, and
they're loving one another, and they're cooperating together,
and they're preaching the gospel, and all these sort of things,
then the manifold wisdom of God is being made known. It's been
made manifest. It's being opened up. And so
as God is glorified, God is glorified as you come to the end of chapter
three, that verse we read there a few moments ago. God is glorified
by the local church as Jews and Gentiles are united in one body. It's tangible, it's evident,
this is a community of people that are diverse ethnically and
what have you, and yet they are united together through Christ. Chapter four then, is where the
turn happens in the book as you move toward the practical exhortations. And chapter four begins describing
the practical unity of the church body that's made up of Jews and
Gentiles. It ends by describing the practical
outworking of the new life in Christ. Chapter 5 continues the
practical exhortation with the theme of congregational unity,
exhorting husbands and wives and showing marriage as a gospel
picture of Christ and His church. So then chapter 6 begins with
further reference to harmonious relationships and has a lengthy
section on the armor of God. and describes the spiritual warfare
that churches are engaged in and exhorts to a unified stand
against the common enemy, and then ends with the greeting and
the blessing that is typically included in a New Testament epistle. So the outline of the book, simply
in two parts, chapters one to three, which show the root of
unity in Christ. And chapters 4-6, the fruit of
unity in Christ. So you have the foundation of
unity in Christ and then in chapters 4-6 it being lived out, how it
looks practically. Alright, so we'll go to interpretation. Ephesians, again, in a short
letter, does present a lot of rich theology. touches on various
biblical doctrines. For instance, from Ephesians,
we see much that's spoken of about salvation. And not just
salvation, but of various aspects. So, predestination, election,
adoption, redemption, glorification, inheritance, grace, faith. All these things are presented
in one way or another in Ephesians. You also doctrinally have much
in Ephesians about the church. You see the foundation for a
local church. You see the role of pastors and
teachers. You see the the interdependence
of the members within the body. You think especially of chapter
early part of chapter four, how every member is to contribute
to the whole that they are to be diverse members, but yet joined
together into one body, contributing to one another, helping to edify
one another and encourage one another and build each other
up and help bringing one another to maturity in Christ. You also
have much theologically about the Christian life in the letter
to the Ephesians. So for one, you have a rich section. In fact, I think it was Might
have been Warren Wiersbe in his commentary. I don't know if you're
familiar with him or not, but he had that Be series, Be this,
Be that, Be whatever. For Ephesians, if I remember
correctly, I think he entitled it Be Rich. And what he was referring
to was all the riches that we have in Christ because they are,
Paul lays them out in Ephesians probably about as well in such
a short amount of space as we see anywhere in the New Testament.
So for the Christian life, we see just enumerated many blessings
and resources that we have in Jesus Christ. We learn about
the equipment of the armor of God. There's some other references. I think Paul refers to a helmet
of salvation in another place. But here we have a full detailing
of the equipment of the armor of God. And we learn that it
is for defense in spiritual warfare that we are engaged again. Paul
makes it clear. in the letter to the Ephesians
that our wrestle really is not with flesh and blood. It's really
not the elements of the world and humanity that we see around
us. It's really a warfare with spiritual
darkness, with powers in high places and all of these sort
of things. And that's the sort of warfare that Really, we need
defense and we need protection. And that's what we have in Christ.
It's what we have in the armor of God. Also in the theology of the Christian
life, there's an extensive exhortation to walking in the new life in
Christ. Now this takes up most of chapters
4-6. But just consider here, turn
to chapter 4, And just consider how he begins this section, chapter
4, verse number 21. He says, If so be that ye have
heard him speaking of Christ, and have been taught by him as
the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former
conversation of the old man, which is corrupt according to
the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and
that you put on the new man, which after God is created in
righteousness and true holiness." And from there he says, wherefore
putting away lying, and on and on he goes really into part of
chapter 6. So what does it mean and what
does it look like to put on Christ, to put on the new man that's
created in righteousness and true holiness. Well, that is
wonderfully enumerated throughout these chapters. Such things as
speaking truth, not stealing, hard work, generosity, clean
speech, getting rid of bitterness, being forgiving and patient with
one another and so on. All of these various things that
are talked about here. This is what it looks like to
walk in the new life in Christ. So also in Ephesians, the primary
theme of the letter to the Ephesians, the primary theme is that of
unity in Jesus Christ. That's the primary theme. When
you read this letter, the letter specifically addresses the unity
of a local church as a means of glorifying God. In other words, one of the ways
that a church is going to glorify God and is going to display God's
glory to the world is through the unity of the membership. That membership being diverse
in various ways, male, female, young, old, various ethnicities,
whatever. However all that diversity comes
together, it is a way that the church glorifies Jesus Christ
because Ultimately, a church should exist in such a way that
our primary reason for being united to one another is because
of our union with Christ. So in other words, we might have
a lot of common interests. We may have some common hobbies.
We may have some common background. We may have a lot of common things
that we can talk about and enjoy. But within a church body, we
ought also to be united not just with those that we share commonalities
with, but those that we're completely different from. And really there's
just no other reason than Jesus Christ that we would be joined
together and living and working together in the way that we are.
So even when you read the sections of this letter, the doctrinal
sections have this theme. In other words, when Paul is
talking about, he starts out talking about predestination
and he's talking about being chosen and going back before
the foundation of the world and God's purpose in Christ, you
know, it's not just that he's teaching a systematic theology
class. Paul is showing the foundation
for this Jew-Gentile unity in the body of Christ. And ultimately
what he's saying is that all those who are saved have this
same background. All those who are saved have
been chosen in God's purpose before the foundation of the
world, Jew and Gentile alike. He goes on to show in chapter
2 how Christ has broken down that middle wall partition And
so even the doctrinal sections have this theme of unity, how
that we have the common experience. Again, you go back to chapter
2 and how we even have a common experience in our sinfulness.
So no matter how different we might be because of our skin
color or our gender or whatever, no matter how different that
we might be, we share that same commonality. We're born sinners
in this world. We walk in this world according
to the course of the world. We walk in the vanity of our
minds, and we have all of those things in common, and that we
have been saved by grace through faith, not of works, lest any
man should boast. So all of these things serve
to join us together, to join us to one another, because first
and foremost, we've been joined to Christ. So these doctrinal
sections show the common thread of unity that we have. And from
the beginning of the letter to the end, unity is the theme even
as we get to the armor of God. Because when we get to the armor
of God as you're getting to the end of the letter, you realize
that the intention here is to stand together. It's not to just
be armored as an individual so that you can go out and face
the powers of darkness, but it is to stand together. One of
the things I like to point out is that when you look at even
the shield of faith that is mentioned, The very type of shield that
that word points to is not, it's not like the small round shield
that would be used in close hand-to-hand combat, but it is a shield that
would be about two and a half feet wide, it'd be about four
feet tall, it'd be like carrying a door around, basically. And
it's the kind of shield where the soldiers would line up, shoulder
to shoulder and to put these shields. And why would they do
that? Well, they would be protected
from archery fire, from arrows that were being sent from a distance.
And that's exactly what Paul says the shields are doing. They're
quenching the fiery darts of Satan. So even in talking about
the armor of God, Paul has in mind a united stand. that we're standing united against
these powers of darkness with the defense of the armor of God
on. So again, it's just the theme
throughout. When you look at the practical
sections of the Christian life, you'll notice the same thing.
Because he'll say things like being tender-hearted and being
forgiving, but to who? He says, to one another. And
again, he's speaking within the context of this church body and
being all of these things relationally one to another. So, primary theme
of the letter is unity. So the letter to the Ephesians,
it does contribute to the expectation of the Messiah. First of all,
it shows Christ in the purpose and plan of God from before the
foundation of the world. It shows Him from there to His
work in the world to redeem those who have been chosen and to His
exaltation to the right hand of God and the guarantee of the
inheritance through the giving of the Spirit. So it shows us
this work of the Messiah that He came to do. And again, it
was for Jew and Gentile alike. And concerning the coming of
the kingdom, we do have another reference in Ephesians chapter
5. He says, beginning in verse 1,
Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk
in love, as Christ also hath loved us and given himself for
us, and offering in a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.
But fornication, and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be
once named among you as becometh saints, neither filthiness, nor
foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, but
rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger,
nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath
any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no
man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh
the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore
partakers with them." So, he points to this kingdom, this
inheritance of the kingdom as yet future. And he gives a warning
here, similar to the warning that is in Galatians and appears
in a few other places in 1 Corinthians as well, a very real warning. And here he's saying, those who
walk in the disobedience as the children of disobedience are
walking contrary to the new life in Christ. And he says, don't
be deceived. Those who continue to walk that way will not inherit
the kingdom of God. So they have not experienced
that salvation and new life in Christ. He says don't be partakers
with them, but come out obviously from among them. Walk in the
new life in Christ. Okay, applications. So how does
the letter to the Ephesians help us today? I have four of these. Number one, understanding Ephesians
helps us understand our common position in Christ with all believers
and that it is the primary foundation for our actual unity with other
believers in the same local church. So there is a sense if we think
about all of the saved, we all have the same standing in Christ. You're either in Christ or not
in Christ. And if you're in Christ and you
have life, you have salvation. And all those who are in Christ
have the same standing in Christ, been saved by His grace through
faith. So that is a commonality that
we share with all believers, no matter where they may be.
But the point of the letter to the Ephesians is that when we
come together in a local body, in a local congregation or church,
that we have a foundation for actual unity, for the actual
loving of one another, being tender hearted with one another,
being forgiving of one another, all these kind of things that
he talks about in this letter, we have a real foundation for
the actual unity with other believers in the same local church. And
again, that's going to be regardless of whatever differences that
we may have in regards to ethnicity and what have you. Number two,
Understanding Ephesians certainly helps us understand true righteousness
and holiness as living out the new life in Christ. Much of the
practical exhortation that Paul gives is relational. In other
words, it's in terms of other people. So think about, just
for instance, think about Paul writing that we are to be forgiving.
Well, how are we to be forgiving? Well, the only way we can be
forgiving is to be forgiving in a community of other people.
How can we be tender hearted? How can we be long suffering? How can we be generous? I mean,
on and on and on. So all these things are many
ways relational and they apply to the practical unity within
a church. In other words there's a there's
a way that we ought to live and walk together as a body of Jesus
Christ and that's what Paul has laid out. So number three Understanding Ephesians helps
us understand the sinfulness of hating and despising others
because of ethnic differences. And obviously the Jew and Gentile
was a serious racial problem in that first century, and no
doubt still is in many ways, going from both camps. But we ought to understand how
that, again, we have these commonalities. So if it's someone that's a believer,
Well, then we have a commonality that we are in Christ, just as
much as they are. We're joined to Christ, so we
have that commonality if they're an unbeliever. We have the commonality
that we were born into sin just like they were. We were just
as much a child of wrath and a child of disobedience. as they
are. And so again, that's a commonality. So we should be able to see the
sinfulness of hating and despising others because of differences
from us. Number four, this last one. Understanding
Ephesians is a book that also helps us understand the need
to be united with other believers in a local church. The need that
we have to be giving glory to God that way, making the wisdom
of God known in that way, through the unity and standing together
against the common spiritual enemy. All right, that is all for Ephesians. Any questions? Comments? Criticisms? Witty repartee? Oh, I'm sorry,
go ahead. Going back to that second Ephesians,
you know, you're saved by grace and faith, and that's not of yourselves. It is a gift of God. is the gift, or is that just
a poor English translation, and we should be looking at all three
as being the gift? My understanding is that when
you look at it in the Greek, that the gift correlates with
being saved. It's the salvation that's being
spoken of specifically. That's the gift of God.
52 Ephesians
Series Biblical Theology
What is Ephesians about?
Ephesians was written to show how God is glorified through Christ in the church by the uniting of Jews and Gentiles in one body.
| Sermon ID | 72622212859877 |
| Duration | 35:34 |
| Date | |
| Category | Bible Study |
| Bible Text | Ephesians 1 |
| Language | English |
Documents
Add a Comment
Comments
No Comments
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.
